NIAIDThe chief of the Laboratory of Immunology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), William “Bill” Paul, died Friday (September 18); the cause was acute myeloid leukemia, The New York Times reported. He was 79.
From 1994 to 1997, Paul directed the Office of AIDS Research at the NIH, developing the first comprehensive plan for NIH-sponsored AIDS research. He is credited with developing programs that led to therapies for AIDS, saving millions of lives. “Bill Paul was an unheralded hero of the AIDS epidemic,” Mark Harrington, executive director of the AIDS think tank Treatment Action Group, told The New York Times.
Paul was well-known for his discovery and characterization of the protein interleukin-4, a critical regulator of allergic inflammatory diseases. He also described the mechanism by which naive T cells differentiate into mature effector cells, which play an important role in the immune system. “Bill was a giant in the field of immunology,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National ...
